Muni BUSTED! Caught on tape!

Sometimes, even powerful bureaucracies are brought low by the diligence of individual citizens.

That’s exactly what happened on Friday.

In this case, Muni makes a promise to public transit riders that it can’t/won’t keep.

We’d never know about that if it weren’t for rider Aaron Kitashima, who first raised the alarm on his blog a few weeks ago that transit ticket vendors wouldn’t accept discounted BART-to Muni coupons when leaving AT&T Park. The discount is only a quarter but it’s the policy; don’t offer it, especially in an age of economic woes and the need to cut down on gas use, if you’re not going to give it.

Muni spokesman Judson True agreed, telling me that “we are planning to make sure that these coupons are accepted beginning with the Giants next home stand.” Which was this last Friday. “We’re committed to taking whatever steps necessary with the staff to see that they’re accepted.”

By Friday morning, Muni’s web site was still saying the coupons would not be accepted. Again Judson True stepped up: “We’re gonna get that (web site language) changed,” he said. Those coupons will be accepted.”

So the intrepid Aaron goes to the game with all the good faith of the universal Muni rider that he’s been officially assured and he’ll be saving himself a quarter on the ride home from the park. But, just in case, he videotapes the transaction.

Guess what? The vendor – and Judson True said the vendors are all answerable to Muni – refused to give the discount. Why? “It’s Muni” that won’t let him offer it, he tells Aaron on camera. Watch it for yourself. (It has music, timelines and even subtitles; nice work Aaron.)

I don’t know if this is citizen journalism or not. But it was a great partnership. Aaron Kitashimi, armed with a camera and a guarantee we got from Judson True, has held our transit agency accountable and provided solid evidence that Muni not only isn’t serving its riders, but is making claims it can’t back up. This is small change but a big principle.

Twice we gave Muni a chance to get its act straight. They said they would. But riders are still getting screwed.

Last word, for the moment, from Muni’s Mr. True: “From our perspective, this (discount fare) policy was in place by the time of the Giant’s home stand. But based on the blogger’s video it’s clear we still have a ways to go to make sure the policy is implemented universally.” He says 75 discount coupons were collected that day, “so the word did get out, and it’s a new policy and sometimes that takes time.” But we don’t know how many others didn’t get their coupons honored.

“I’m not suggesting any excuse for (Aaron’s) experience,” says Judson. “From our perspective there’s no reason this should have happened. It shouldn’t happen again.” So what are you going to do to enforce that that you didn’t do the first time we talked about it? “We are going to have further discussions with Giants to make sure…to do the best we can to make sure the policy works.” So we’ve gone from “make sure” to “we’ll try.” At least that’s probably a more honest answer.

Also, while Muni says they’re responsible to see that Giants’ employees at the Park who deal with Muni coupons stick to the policy, it could be the Giants who need to get with it on this.

“We reinforced this with the Giants that each employee be briefed on the policy change and they agreed to do it again.” Because it’s not like Aaron was singled out. “It’s way too coincidental that this would be the one guy turned away.” Yeah. “It’s also particularly unfortunate to have the guy who complained experience that frustration. It was a mistake for the coupon not to be accepted. Everyone agrees it wrong,” including Judson’s boss, Nathaniel Ford, who’s traveling, True says, but whom we anticipate hearing from on this.